Peugeot publishes real-world fuel economy figures

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Test done alongside independent organizations

by Anton Andres

July 19, 2016 11:15

Following the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” scandal, French automaker Peugeot promised its customers transparency when it came to fuel economy of its products. Last October, the PSA Group announced that it will be conducting its first real-world fuel economy tests to be done alongside NGOs and independent organizations.

The PSA Group decided to take a unique approach to fuel-economy and emissions testing after various manufacturers have been caught tampering with results. The company decided perform real-world testing and publish its data for its cars in order to be transparent with customers. PSA paired with environmental organisations and certification partners to perform this initiative which, PSA says, is an industry first.

For this test, PSA used the European Union's Real Driving Emissions (RDE) standard and drove Citroen, DS and Peugeot vehicles on public roads instead of the usual laboratory set up. fuel consumption and emissions were monitored by means of a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). The test route consisted of 25 kilometers worth of urban roads, 39 kilometers on rural roads and 31 kilometers on the highway. For this test, the cars were loaded with luggage, as well as passengers, and the routes used for the drive included gradients as well.

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PSA has now released its findings after tests conducted with Transport & Environment (T&E) and France Nature Environment (FNE) and results have been verified by Bureau Veritas. Peugeot models tested included the 108, 208, 308, 508, 2008 and 3008. For Citroen, the cars tested were the C1, C3, C4, C4 Cactus, Grand C4 Picasso and Berlingo. DS3 and DS4 models were tested from DS, PSA Group's upmarket brand. Among the models tested, three are available in the Philippines, namely the 308 1.6 HDI and 508 2.0 HDI. Other Peugeot cars tested came with engines not available in the Philippines.

In lab tests, the Peugeot 308 1.6 HDI got a fuel economy rating of 31.25 kilometers per liter. In real-world testing, the same car rated 20.41 kilometers per liter. As for the 508 2.0 HDI, it got 25 kilometers per liter in lab tests and 15.87 kilometers per liter in real-world driving. As mentioned above, these results were based on mixed driving in metropolitan areas, rural roads and a short highway drive.